- Adrian Portelli faces serious charges in South Australia over allegedly unlicensed, high-value lotteries.
- His eye-popping prizes, including luxury cars and multimillion-dollar properties, drew scrutiny.
- Controversy isn’t new; Portelli’s previous headline-grabbing stunt involved craning a supercar into his luxury penthouse.
Adrian Portelli aka ‘Mr Lambo’ is an entrepreneur who has long been renowned — some might say infamous — for his high-end lifestyle and shameless if sometimes also philanthropic displays of wealth. As of today, he is facing serious legal issues in South Australia.
Portelli has been charged with nine counts of assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery via his company Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd — which operates under the brand name LMCT+ — which has itself been served with 10 charges related to conducting or aiding in the operation of an unlicensed lottery. Relating to incidents that occurred between 29th January 2023 and 16th May 2024, these charges somehow aren’t the most ridiculous stunt he pulled off in that same time frame…
Portelli’s Unlawful Lottery Allegations
Here’s a quick breakdown of the unlawful scheme for which Portelli’s been accused of running: LMCT+ offers paid memberships to what it calls a “rewards club” through which members are granted a number of entries into lotteries to win prizes including cars, cash, and property.
A good chunk of these properties are associated with Portelli’s mass acquisition of homes featured in TV show The Block. Portelli’s business model is framed as a “trade promotion lottery” which wouldn’t require additional payment to enter if it were legally compliant. However, South Australia’s Consumer and Business Services (CBS) claims that the scale and nature of the prizes necessitated a licence that Portelli has never held. Under South Australian law, any such lottery offering prizes over A$5,000 must be licensed.
According to documents provided by the court, one such prize offered was a Gisborne property from The Block or an alternative cash prize of A$3 million. Two other Block properties were also touted, one at a punchy A$2.9 million and another of currently unspecified value, both with equivalent cash alternatives. Other large prizes included a “Devil Yellow” HSV VZ, a Toyota LandCruiser 79 series paired with a “barcrusher 670c” (collectively valued at A$228,000), plus several cars and cash prizes of A$250,000 and A$500,000.
While regulators in Victoria and New South Wales have already concluded that LMCT+’s activities were lawful, South Australia’s CBS isn’t backing down so easily. Each charge for conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery carries a maximum penalty of A$10,000. Portelli’s case and the charges against his company are listed for hearing at Adelaide Magistrates Court in January 2025.
Portelli Cranes a McLaren Into His Melbourne Penthouse
These fresh legal complications make a publicity stunt that turned Portelli into a true household name look like something of a farce. In 2023 Mr Lambo caused a media sensation by craning a A$3 million McLaren Senna GTR into his newly purchased penthouse situated on the 57th floor of Melbourne’s Sapphire by the Gardens tower, reputedly costing A$40 million.
Portelli’s undeniably flashy post on Instagram, showing the McLaren being hoisted into his sky-high apartment, drew heated responses across the board, some in favour, more against. The story became such a hot topic that prominent political figures began to weigh in before long.
Greens leader Adam Bandt publicly voiced his outrage, referencing then-upcoming tax cuts that would disproportionately favour high-income earners and pointing to the incongruity of wealthy individuals enjoying massive financial windfalls while many others struggled to get by amidst a biting cost of living crisis.
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Other figures joined the chorus: Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute, fired off on social media and Rachel Withers, a contributing editor at The Monthly, pointed out the gulf between JobSeeker’s painfully modest increase that year and the brazen nature of Portelli’s stunt, while ANU Professor and former political correspondent Mark Kenny simply deemed it “tasteless”.
Portelli did not remain quiet amid the criticism, lashing out at Bandt and accusing him of using Portelli as a political pawn. Portelli showed no signs of regret, later posting images of himself posing with the luxury car inside his penthouse — now a weekend bolt-hole rather than a full-time residence. Portelli justifies these displays of wealth with undeniably philanthropic acts such as his wide-scale giveaways, including one undertaken this week with Coles ahead of Christmas.
Portelli remains squarely in the public eye, but with the looming lottery charges in South Australia, his past penthouse antics now appear like a far simpler — and far less legally fraught — chapter in his headline-making career.
